Mushroom were and may still be a jazzy rock band stacked with serious players who cook up a big, thick sound and do a lot of jamming. But listen to Mad Dogs and San Franciscans and you'll find they're also a convincing white soul band with the intelligence and good taste to cover Spencer Davis Group's "Keep On Running" (Stevie Winwood's finest moment with that band). Dogs has that sometimes dicey mix of ambition and blind conviction that induces the group to tackle Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman," and as for the rest of the material, well, it's a long way from "Compared to What," the highlight of the band's last album. Mad Dogs includes loving covers of Clarence Carter's "Slip Away," Leon Russell's "Delta Lady," as done by Joe Cocker during his Mad Dogs and Englishmen days, and Spirit's "I Got a Line on You." It's great material, especially when you throw in singer Gary Floyd, who is as passionate and convincing as Cocker was in his day. Floyd grabbed my attention the first time I heard his Austin, Texas, punk band, the Dicks, do their unforgettable "Dicks Hate the Police." He contributed the soul-scraping, desperate vocal to Sister Double Happiness' "Freight Train." If I wasn't so crazy about Black Kali Ma, his most recent project, I'm crazy about him here. Mushroom and Gary Floyd perform Wed/14, 19 Broadway, Fairfax. (415) 459-1091. Thurs/15, Bottom of the Hill, S.F. (415) 621-4455. (J.H. Tompkins)

Theory of Ruin
Counter Culture Nosebleed (Escape Artist)

Theory of Ruin crush. Do you like the really heavy and rocking thing the Melvins do? How about the abrasively precise music the Jesus Lizard used to generate? If so, you will totally be up on Theory's jock. Counter Culture Nosebleed, their first release, is terse yet powerful – it's in and out before you even know what happened, and that's including the 13-minute-plus "Blasted."

Nevertheless, this CD is worth your time if you have an interest in the genre of "new" noise rock – purposefully abrasive, exploratory, generally working-class, and focused on the pure power of the sound.